Washington Shores residents eager to develop community

The bronze statues of Belvin Perry Sr. and Arthur Jones stand in the center of a brick roundabout at the intersection of two streets in Washington Shores. The plaque says both men — Orlando's first black police officers — lived nearby back when the neighborhood was home to the city's black middle-class of cops, waiters, teachers, attorneys, preachers and merchants.

But that was back when the small homes on Wooden Boulevard and Hankins Circle were still new. In the 60 years since then, Orlando's black middle-class has dispersed throughout the metro area, leaving behind a low-income neighborhood where about half of all residences are rental properties.

Today, Washington Shores stands at its own intersection as residents, pastors and community leaders try to envision a grass-roots road map for revitalization.

"What I'm finding is many of us are addressing the problems, but we are doing it independently or individually," said Bishop Allen T.D. Wiggins, pastor of The Hope Church of Orlando. "You have to start somewhere to provide a platform for communication so we can become more united."

In a series of community meetings, Wiggins hopes Washington Shores can plot its own future as a "self-sufficient" community with access to employment, education, retail, recreation and medical services. He calls this exercise in self-determination "Occupy Our Community."

"We need to develop the community from the inside out. We cannot wait for the outside to determine our destiny," Wiggins said.

Residents say they want a future Washington Shores that has what other neighborhoods have: places to work and shop, restaurants instead of fast-food joints, clothing stores and supermarkets, banks and hospitals.

"In the black community, we deserve the same type of things you have in Baldwin Park and Winter Park," said Timothy Keith, 48, who grew up in Washington Shores, moved away and then returned.

Washington Shores has some assets to work with. It is in close proximity to downtown Orlando. It is accessible to much of the city via Lynx buses. It has a proud heritage, long history and a deeply rooted population where neighbors still look out for one another.

The problems of Washington Shores are well-known: poverty, unemployment, crime, poor schools. The solutions are less well-defined and in no way unanimous.

Take housing, for example. Two-thirds of the area's homes were built before 1970. The compact houses with small closets, bathrooms and kitchens don't appeal to the influx of affluent black professionals looking for modern amenities — even if there were any houses for sale. Homes in Washington Shores seldom come on the market.

Longtime residents such as Thelma Montgomery moved into Washington Shores in 1947 and never moved out. She bought her house for $8,050 when the neighborhood was all woods and dirt roads. To her, Washington Shores is like the decorative butterflies with which she adorns her home — a plain old caterpillar that has turned beautiful.

"This is an old community, and it's a good community. This is where I will spend the rest of my life," said Montgomery, 85.

Any new development would mean the displacement of the elderly and the poor. But the poor — who comprise about a third of the population — and elderly don't have the money to sustain a viable, thriving business district.

"The first few days of the month, it's great. After that, there's no income," said Henry Jones, who has owned Crown Cleaners in Washington Shores for 34 years. "I'm living on fumes. I exist on hope."

What Washington Shores needs to thrive again, Jones said, are more jobs for its residents.

But bringing in new businesses to provide jobs for the poor and unemployed has its own problems. Wiggins felt he was filling one of the neighborhood's voids by offering to sell several acres of church property on the corner of John Young Parkway and Columbia Street to Walmart for a neighborhood grocery and pharmacy.

The lack of a neighborhood supermarket means residents must leave the area for their groceries or pay higher prices at convenience stories and small grocery stores. Montgomery, for one, is happy to see the arrival of Walmart, which is expected to open next year.

"I think Walmart is really going to be nice. Most of us old people will be able to walk there," she said.

Owners of the area's mom-and-pop groceries, and the C&C Community Pharmacy, are not so happy. Chris Rouse has had his Washington Shores pharmacy for nearly 20 years. Two years ago, he moved into a renovated retail complex owned by Wiggins' church.

Rouse expects Walmart to undercut his prices and steal his customers, as it has in other communities.

"It may make the community look more attractive, but you have to wonder if the community is better off," he said.

But Wiggins has Washington Shores headed in the right direction by determining its own destiny, said Rev. Nelson Pinder, pastor of the Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist in Washington Shores for 52 years.

"Bishop Wiggins is right," Pinder said. "Let's come together and say what we want and what we don't want. We used to do this a long time ago. We have to get back to that."